part0041

O ur commanding officer had been a great commander, but his time was up. A new CO took command of the company without fanfare, at least not for the flight crews, as we were all flying when he arrived and our old CO left. We said goodbye to the CO in an appropriate fashion. He knew he would be missed. Most of us met the new CO when we came into the club that night for a beer and a meeting. Initial impression was good.

Major Sundstrum said all company policies would remain in effect and, keeping his word, he took his orientation ride with me the next day. He had been on the division staff, so he knew the landscape well and had some insight into what the overall picture and tactical situation was. I sensed in a few comments he made that there was something more that he wasn’t sharing, but we all had our secrets, so I let it drop.

“Sure, sir, want a beer?” I offered as I reached for one in my mini refrigerator. Wonder what this is all about. He’s never visited me before.

“Yeah, I could use one,” he said as he dragged over my one spare broken-down lawn chair and sat. Something told me this was not going to be a short conversation.

Leaning in close, he asked in a low voice, “Did the major say anything to you the other day when you flew with him about aircraft availability?” The expression on his face told me he was worried about something.

“No, sir, he talked about flying stuff but nothing about availability. He asked about blade strikes and tail rotor strikes but that was it. Why?”

Taking a sip of his beer, he hesitated for a moment. “He told me to have one hundred percent availability by the end of the month. I was wondering if he said anything to you about it.”

“One hundred percent availability? Really? Have we ever had one hundred percent? I mean, you always have at least one or two aircraft in for periodic maintenance, don’t you?”

“Yeah, but he wants me to manage our maintenance flow and aircraft availability for missions so at the end of the month we can report one hundred percent availability.”

“I did, and he told me, ‘All in good time, all in good time.’ What the hell does that mean?” He took a long pull on his beer.

“Sir, I don’t know what to tell you. He said nothing to me about availability. We just talked flying stuff and sort of reviewed everyone’s flying ability since I’ve flown with about everyone in the company on check rides. Have you asked some of the other RLOs?

“No, the major said to keep it close, and if I ask one of them, I’m sure they’ll be asking the XO or Ops or even going straight to him and asking why. You warrant officers generally keep to yourselves and don’t run to the major with questions,” he added with a smile and drained his beer. Tossing the can in the trash, he asked, “If you hear anything, will you let me know? And keep this between us, please.”